Why We Don't Know What Happened to the Hero

As I have previously written, we don't get to see or hear about our hero very often after we controlled them. While I briefly touched on the issue with talking about what happened to the old heroes, I'm going to go into that a little more now, as promised.

As we know, the misuse of a single pronoun to describe the Nerevarine (the hero from Morrowind) in Skyrim caused quite a bit of controversy. But that wouldn't even be the first time that one of the sequels caused an issue with the Nerevarine, Oblivion also got in on that action. During some routine wandering around the breathtakingly beautiful province of Cyrodiil, you will eventually run into two NPCs having a conversation in which the following line of dialogue will be uttered: "Rumor has it the Nerevarine has left Morrowind on an expedition to Akavir, and has not been heard from since." And that single bit of text ignores the single most important duty of the Nerevarine, to be the Protector of Morrowind.

At the end of Morrowind'smain quest, you have successfully defeated Dagoth Ur (which always came off as somewhat tragic to me, but that's not the topic for today) and stopped The Blight from ravaging Morrowind. For your amazing accomplishments, Vivec (if you didn't kill him already) will give you the title of "Protector of Morrowind": "The blight is gone, and we have survived. Now we must dedicate ourselves to rebuilding the Temple. And you must dedicate yourself to your responsibilities as Protector of Morrowind. There is much to do. You still have Kagrenac's Tools, potent weapons, and the wit and experience of a proven hero. The Tribunal and the Temple are happy to yield to you the duties of fighting the enemies of Morrowind."

So to summarize, the Nerevarine was entrusted with the safety of all of Morrowind, and then promptly left Morrowind for good. A measly six years later, the Oblivion Crisis happens and decimates Morrowind. Good job, oh mighty Protector of Morrowind! I hope Akavir was nice. But after such tragedies, surely the Nerevarine would return to his (look at me, abusing pronouns just like Bethesda!) people, right? 4E 5 would once again continue the nasty string of bad luck for the Dunmer with the Red Year, and the Nerevar Reborn seemingly out of the picture for good. For someone who was supposedly the reincarnation of one the greatest Dunmer leaders ever, the Nerevarine left them in a really, really bad way.

I personally believed that the departure of the Nerevarine had more to do with getting him out of the way for the Champion of Cyrodiil, but considering the countless anguishes that were tossed at the Dunmer people immediately afterwords, it just feels like the Nerevarine was more a part of the problem for the Dark Elves than any kind of savior.

While I find that in light of the future of his people, the disappearance of the Nerevarine seems to be too poorly thought out, I can't help but wonder if we wouldn't be more upset if we did not get an explanation for why he wasn't there. If the Nerevarine was just ignored for the sequels, wouldn't there be more of an uproar? Let's think of how that series of events goes, without that single line of dialogue explaining what happened to your old character. We hear nothing about the Nerevarine, and Vivec disappears alongside him. So the Oblivion Crisis happens, cities like Ald'ruhn are destroyed by Daedra, and apparently the Nerevarine just doesn't do anything. The Ingenium is created, and the people of Morrowind are actively sacrificed to this dark machine, while the Nerevarine remains aloof to their fate. Argonians invade Morrowind, but the Nerevarine doesn't take on his role of old and lead the defense. A mass exodus from Morrowind occurs, while the Nerevarine does not help manage the relief efforts. By not explaining why the Nerevarine wasn't there, one of the fan favorite heroes becomes one of the most despicable figures in ES history through simple inaction.

The "ignored" Nerevarine, despite having the same list of crimes as the one we have, is just simply so much more unlikable as his lack of action would go unexplained. That is to not say I agree that the Nerevarine should have just disappeared, I would have preferred him to remain involved in events, even if we don't get to see him again, but the Akavir explanation is better than none at all. Barely, but it is still preferable to me.

Any issue with the hero from Morrowind still has nothing on the sheer chaos brought on by the Champion of Cyrodiil's fate, however. And that's the topic of the next entry in this look at the fates of our heroes, after we control them. As a little note, I'm sure you noticed I skipped over the Agent from Daggerfall. That's because his or her fate is more clear cut, on account of his or her death at the end of his or her adventure. Bit tragic, but at least it doesn't leave room for a few hundred words worth of ranting about what he or she should be doing.

2 comments

Looking at the matter from Bethesda’s point of view, I think the disappearance of the Nerevarine makes sense. It was certainly a kick to the nuts for the Dunmer, and I’m not saying it was ideal, but I can understand why they did it. It effectively put his story on an indefinite hold, so they wouldn’t have to keep stringing it along and instead could focus on other stories. It was a mere in-game rumor fans can choose to ignore if they didn’t like it.

The Nerevarine’s decision to leave can be interpreted many ways, and thus could appeal to a wide range of character types. You can imagine the Nerevarine hopping on a boat and flipping the bird at Morrowind, vowing never to return. Or you can imagine him rejecting the mistakes of the past, and altruistically giving up power so that the Dunmer could lead themselves. And perhaps he understood that he could only unify the Dunmer as a symbol, not as a leader (after all, the quickest way to lose a savior is to make him your political leader). Perhaps he was simply a fool for leaving, or, perhaps, the Nerevarine fought off an Akaviri horde single-handedly, preventing them from overrunning an oblivious Tamriel.

Whatever the case, it certainly has started many conversations on the matter - and introducing conversation topics tends to encourage an active fan base, and active fan bases = $$$.